February and early March 2016
Continued activities in La Cruz, Bucerias, Punta de Mita, Nuevo Vallarta and Puerto Vallarta
Kid's Beach Potluck
Bonfire
Horatio and Julian (in blue from SV Coaster) on stage at
Paradise Village Marina in Nuevo Vallarta
Debra Perfitt's (SV Coastal Drifter) birthday party at
Falconi's pizza with our kids and Coastal Drifter, Coaster, Yolo, Pesto and Sarita
Yolo ( Presley and Colter) with Horatio
Day sail to Punta de Mita on SV Jolly Dogs
The kids with Geoff, Matt (Yolo) and Mark (Jolly Dogs)
cooling off the back of Jolly Dogs in Punta de Mita
Festival - Day of Our Lady of Peace - Patron Saint of Bucerias. The fisherman decorate their boats and literally surf their pangas onto the beach and have their boats blessed by a priest. They also have dancing, music, and food during the week long festival. We have found that all towns in Mexico have a patron saint that they celebrate with a week long festival. So, you could literally be going town to town and have a Patron Saint celebration going on all the time, year round!
Pangas motored from La Cruz to Bucerias and waiting for the beach landing
First panga coming in for a landing
Whew, made the beach without hitting any spectators.
Here comes the priest to bless them
Native dance
Adorable little boy in the dance
Amazing detail to their costumes
They literally dance in the hot sun for half an hour.
Ethan (Coastal Drifter) and Liam and Nelly (Riki Tiki Tavi)
Horatio and Noah sitting in the shade at the church in Bucerias.
Back at the VIP lounge for a game of Magic the Gathering
with Liam (Riki Tiki Tavi)
Horatio's fort
Jessica's castle (Terrapin)
Emma's castle (Terrapin)
Emily and Presley's caste
(Alert and Yolo)
(Alert and Yolo)
The kids had a great kid's activity at La Ballena Blanca restaurant. The kids got to learn how a restaurant works. They cleaned up the restaurant and set the tables, took food orders and delivered the food and cleaned up. They also got to keep the tips they made! They each took home $70 pesos!
Horatio was Matt and Courtney's (Yolo) waiter.
Horatio with Colter (Yolo)
Noah was the waiter for a large table that included
Pete and Sara from Riki Tiki Tavi
The waiters and waitresses with staff from La Ballena Blanca.
SV Yolo, Terrapin, Pesto, Coastal Drifter, Alert, Riki Tiki Tavi,
Batu, Coaster, and Sarita
We decided to do an overnight at Punta de Mita with Terrapin and Yolo. We met up with a new boat from Napa Valley area, SV Banyan.
We caught a Crevalle Jack on the way to the anchorage in Punta Mita. We heard they are not fish for eating, so we threw it back in.
The kids watching a movie on Yolo after dinner.
Dinghy boarding with Yolo.
Enough at the anchorage during sunset in Punta de Mita
Sailing back to La Cruz with Emma and Jessica
They learned to raise the Spinnaker.
We spent an evening in Puerto Vallarta. We were suppose to meet a friend of a friend, but did not connect. We did end up meeting Terrapin and Coaster later that night for dinner in Puerto Vallarta or PV or just Vallarta as they call it here.
La Iglesias de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe
Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe in downtown Puerto Vallarta
It was time to make a break from Banderas Bay, where La Cruz and PV are located. We decided to head south toward Barra de Navidad with stops in Perula, Chamela, Tenacatita and Barra de Navidad. It was nice to see different scenery and really sail again. It was about a 15-18 hour trip from La Cruz to our first stop in Perula. We buddy boated with Yolo and Terrapin.
First stop, Perula.
Immediately, everyone jumped overboard to get off the boat and meet up in the bay.
Enough, Yolo and Terrapin wading in the water next to Terrapin.
Our boats from the beach
Playing in the sand
Kayaking in the estuary
Horatio with Colter and Emma
Noah with Presley and Jessica
Dinner on Terrapin
We spent several days with Yolo and Terrapin in Perula and Chamela. Lots of fun snorkeling and spear fishing and beach days. We left for Barra de Navidad before them as we were going to meet our family for a couple of weeks.
Ship stuck on the rocks on the way into Barra de Navidad
This ship got stuck during the last tropical storm, Patricia, that came through in October 2015.
Ship peeking through between the rocks
Kids sailing into Barra de Navidad
Beautiful Sunset from the beach in Barra de Navidad
View of the marina and lagoon from the hotel
The kids inside the resort hotel getting wifi.
The view with the lagoon in the background
We met up with SV Pesto in Barra de Navidad and planned a trip to Colima to see an active volcano. It was a great bus trip, overnight in the town of Comala, and the full day hike to see the Vulcan de Fuego.
The kids getting comfortable on the bus to Colima
Paulo and Noah and Horatio and Raquel
Town of Comala - Amazingly beautiful church, town square,
great restaurant with botanas (snacks and tequila)
Hiking with Pesto (Alex, Adrian, Paulo and Raquel) to see Vulcan de Fuego
Taking a break
Seriously active volcano! What a sight!
After the volcano, we toured the Colima Brewery.
Adriana used to work with the owner, middle, of the brewery during their consulting days.
The French Baker - Emmerich
What a highlight.
True French baker that delivers the most amazing chocolate, almond croissants, french bread, quiches and tarts right to your boat!
Kid boat alert in Barra!
Including our niece, Pippa, and nephew, Griffinn. Pesto, Agamere, Terrapin, Yolo, Shawnigan,
Cielo Grande and Coaster (now Velvet Sky, they bought a new boat, to be renamed Cape D!)
Dinner out in Barra - Kid's table
Dinner in Barra - Adult's table
We needed to leave Barra and head back north to PV, so we could drop our family, Catherine, Phill, Pippa and Griffinn at the airport, so we made our way to Tenacatita and Chamela, then back to Nuevo Vallarta.
Geoff swimming with his sister, Catherine and our niece, Pippa, in Tenacatita
Griffin celebrating his one year birthday.
(can't see the cake, but it was a delicious Trader Joe's Vanilla Bourbon cake!)
Phill, Catherine, Pippa, Griffinn and Horatio and Noah
at the beach in Chamela
Back to La Cruz and then haul out at Opequimar in PV before we leave for the South Pacific.
The office manager, Blanca, had a beautiful baby girl named, Leah.
This was at the church for her baptism
Enough getting hauled out at Opequimar in PV for bottom paint.
(it became more than bottom paint, as we discovered some blistering)
But getting close to being back in the water and then provisioning and mentally getting ready to go on a 20-30 day journey across the Pacific.
Horatio enjoying a crepe at La Creperia in Marina Vallarta.
Mentally getting ready to cross the Pacific Ocean for a new country and leaving Mexico and the closeness to the United States behind. It is daunting and exciting at the same time. We are very sad to leave behind some great friends, but we are excited to discover new places and learn about different cultures and about ourselves in those new environments.
The countdown to a new journey has started. We will not have wifi access during this trip. We will not be able to post to the blog or Facebook until we get to French Polynesia. We can all still stay in touch with our iridium email address at: enoughsailing@myiridium.net. Please keep in touch!